First off, thanks to Mario for providing inspiration for the design as I have copied some of his ideas.

After the dismal failure of our first bator due to not sealing the mdf I have built a new unit. I have used reclaimed Melamine sheet that was stashed (hoarded) in the shed. The only new bits are the egg trays, the wafer thermostat, a small piece of 6 mm mesh and some 70mm wide pine. The rest of the material was already on hand or recycled from the old bator. the fan was removed from an old computer power supply and is powered by a 9 volt dc power adaptor.

The handle is for the egg tilt setup, the black wire is the fan power.The egg tray is removable.The side pivots are not connected to each other and the tray sits in the aluminium angle side rails and lifts out easily.The shelf under the lights has the fan mounted on it and is removable.I plan to add 2 more light fittings and drop the globe wattage to 60watts each (currently 100w)

I have sealed all the pine and exposed chipboard with waterbased gloss varnish. To seal the joins I used "no more gaps" and the screwed it all together, Bad bad idea, it stunk. So I then painted the joins with varnish to cover the no more gaps and it is fixed.

The humidity is easily pushed up to 70% by putting a water tray on the shelf under one of the lights and easily regulated by moving the water tray away from the lights or down to the bottom.

The wafer thermostat was $95.00 already assembled and worth every cent. Once it is set up the temp variance from high to low is less than 0.5 deg F.

I drilled vent holes on each side, one side top and the other at the bottom. I am using foam earplugs to close them as needed.

We have had it running for the last 3 days to let it settle and get any residual smells out of it and plan to set the first batch of eggs on the weekend .

We will keep you posted.

_________________They say that you cant teach an old dog new tricks, It is a good thing that people aren't dogs!

Great looking incubator, my only comment would be that on/off type thermostats are really hard on light globes. A dimming stat like these ones http://www.ultimatereptiles.com.au/inde ... &Itemid=35 will virtually eliminate bulbs blowing as well as maintaining good steady temps. The only problem with them is I'm not sure if they go up to 38C

Great job, I'me glad the photos of mine helped you out.If you get a hot spot directly below the fan, try puting it on an angle.My shelf under the lights has a gap on the left side, the right side is on an angle with no gaps & holds the fan. This way the hottest air hits the wall & spreads wider, it cant go up because there is no gap, it bounces of the right hand wall & goes to the bottom, bounces of the bottom & hits the left side wall. Once the hot air gets there, it is sucked up through the gap in the shelf on the left hand side by the fan on top, then it goes around again.Hope this helps if needed.Good luck with its first hatch & many more to comeRegardsMario

_________________EXHIBITOR & BREEDER OF SHOW QUALITY BELGIAN DÃšCCLES IN ALL COLOURS

** Posted on behalf of chookmadhubby (he has a dead computer at the moment so cant post)

Firstly thanks everyone for the input and encouragement.

Ash, are you going to be at the Wyandotte show on 7th July?

Mario, my idea was having it so the air circulates in a figure 8 pattern, which is why I left a gap on each side of the shelf. We have thermometers in different areas and dont seem to be getting a hot spot but we will certainly keep that idea in mind.

Very well done. What's it's floor temp like when full of eggs. I got a real shock today when I emptied out the water tray's on one I was doing today. Water was almost stone cold.At the sides of your trays you pine pieces acting as spacers. Do they need to be this long and would making them shorter help circulation.

If there was more room below the tray you could use that area as a hatcher if you wanted to do different batches.

Well done. This incubator of yours will hatch many eggs .... I can sense these things.

awwwwwwww Denis,now im worrying again! We havent tested with a full tray..............I have a few eggs im going to set tomorow to give it a test run. Five for starters so will keep an eye on the floor temp with these. While I think of it, how often would you suggest weighing the eggs to check the humidity?

"This incubator of yours will hatch many eggs .... I can sense these things."I hope you are right.

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